Amazon has a dangerous ambition to dominate healthcare.
By Roger McNamee and Johnny Ryan, Time
Patient privacy has been inviolable since the time of Hippocrates, in 400 BC. That may be about to end. Last week Amazon announced it is going to acquire One Medical, a health care provider with over 700,000 patients.
Big Tech has flirted with health care for years. Amazon’s direct entry into primary health care is a turning point. It will increase the perils of surveillance capitalism, with implications for everyone.
Amazon knows our guilty pleasures, what we buy, what pills we buy, and what we watch and read and listen to. Its devices listen in our homes, and peep out of our (Amazon Ring) door bells. Amazon’s “Kuiper” satellites will soon connect our Internet.
Recent scandals revealed that Amazon uses the data collected for supposedly innocent reasons in ways that betray our trust. Amazon staff say there are no limits on how Amazon uses this data internally. According to Amazon’s former head of information security: “We have no idea where our fucking data is.”
Recent Posts
Are You on the Trump Regime’s Domestic Terror Watch List?
Take Action Now An editor’s essay on dissent, surveillance, and NSPM‑7By Liberty’s Lens Do you consider yourself anti‑fascist? Do you…
Trump’s War on Iran Ends with a “Triumphant” Tehran and a Diminished U.S.: Vali Nasr
Take Action Now “The United States is more eager for this war to end than Iran is,” says professor Vali Nasr, who teaches at the Johns Hopkins School…
The Secret ‘Doomsday Book’ That Enables Trump’s Abuses of Power
Take Action Now Presidential Emergency Action Documents have a long history, but Trump’s invocation of them on immigration betrays their…
Green Shoots of Hope in the Labor Movement
Take Action Now Spring has brought green shoots in the labor movement. Here are some causes for hopeBy Alexandra Bradbury, Labor Notes Gardeners…